Giving Compass' Take:

• Rebecca Klein describes the burden that the opioid crisis is putting on grandparents, schools and the foster care system as addicted parents fail to care for their children. 

• What are the solutions at scale to this problem? How can funders best improve the systems that prevent and aid recovery of addiction?

• Learn about a law that is improving funding for the foster care system. 

Indiana’s foster care intake has more than doubled since 2001, the sharpest increase in the nation. And while the nationwide rate of foster care entrances is not as high as it was at its peak in 2005, many states have seen drastic increases in recent years. Between 2012 and 2016, the number of kids in foster care around the country rose by 10 percent. More of these kids were being removed from their home due to parental drug use, according to data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System.

Physicians and counselors struggle with how to treat opioid-addicted pregnant women and their children, who are born into withdrawal. But for the kids who are already here, it is their grandparents, foster parents, teachers and school administrators who are on the front lines of this crisis.

The statistics for foster youth are bleak: Just 58 percent of youth involved with the foster care system have graduated from high school by age 19, compared to 87 percent of the general population. And while new requirements in the 2015 federal law governing education, the Every Student Succeeds Act, are designed to help this population, a Hechinger Report/HuffPost survey has found that many states are not living up to the law’s promise.

some schools are still struggling to meet the needs of these kids – often allowing them to slip through the cracks as they bounce between schools and families.

One of the biggest barriers to these students’ success is their transience. Studies show that foster youth lose four to six months of learning every time they change schools. In the rush to make sure students find a suitable home placement, educational stability is sometimes put on the back burner.

The Every Student Succeeds Act is designed to tackle this. For the first time, the 2015 education law requires states to report graduation rates for foster youth. It also includes a provision designed to help students stay in the same school even if they move homes. This provision calls on states to work with schools and child welfare agencies to provide school transportation for these students even if they are no longer living nearby.

But a Hechinger/HuffPost survey of 44 state education agencies showed that states are struggling to meet the new standards.

Read the full article about the opioid crisis' toll by Rebecca Klein at The Hechinger Report.